by Duncan Lamb
Baker Harris Saunders have acquired Bailey Posner & Partners, the surveying and agency firm, for £4m, and plan to integrate the firm with the other recent BHS purchase, Alan G Hood, to form Bailey Posner Hood.
Announcing the acquisition, Jonathan Edwards, managing director of Baker Harris Saunders, said: “We have always regarded Bailey Posner as our opposite number in the West End office market. In a short space of time they have established a reputation as specialists in that market and, like ourselves, have concentrated on developing their business through an impressive client list….”
Notable among the firm’s current West End instructions is London & Edinburgh Trust’s 50,000-sq ft Nightingale House development in Curzon Street and a major scheme in St James’s Square — again LET, but this time with London & Metropolitan.
Founding partners Justyn Bailey and Richard Posner will join the Baker Harris board, with Alan Hood becoming chairman of Bailey Posner Hood.
In the year to May 31, Bailey Posner recorded a turnover of £630,000 with a profit after taxation and director’s remuneration of £234,000.
Baker Harris Saunders will satisfy the £4.07m purchase with the issue of 1.049m new ordinary shares of 10p and 2.7m convertible deferred shares of 10p each. The latter will be convertible to ordinary shares dependent on the profits of Bailey Posner in the period from completion until April 1989. The total value of the ordinary shares resulting will not exceed £2.7m — placing a maximum value on Bailey Posner of £6.5m.
